In various situations, data to be stored may be compressed before storage, and/or before transmission to a data storage system. Compressing the data may reduce the cost of transmission and the cost of storage. A storage system may include a host computer and one or more storage devices. Subsequently retrieving the data from storage for use may involve fetching the data from a storage device by the host computer, decompressing the data, and storing the decompressed data back on the storage device. This process may burden the host computer, diminishing its ability to perform other operations, and it may consume significant amounts of power.
Thus, there is a need for an improved system and method of retrieving compressed data from storage.